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YATE Shopping Centre weathered difficult trading conditions to record healthy footfall figures in December.
The centre has reported similar shopper numbers to the Christmas countdown of 2011, in line with most retail operators across the country.
It also recorded one of its busiest weeks ever, as many customers put off their shopping until the very last week before Christmas.
Centre manager Andrew Lowrey said heavy rainfall for much of December did delay many people’s Christmas shopping.
"The Christmas rush came very late last year and was badly affected by the weather," he said.
"With schools breaking up late and many days of consistent rainfall, shoppers delayed their visits to the last possible moment and this was reflected in the footfall figures for the week prior to Christmas when over 290,000 visited the centre – one of the highest totals for a single week ever."
"Whereas the footfall figure for the period as a whole was similar to 2011, several sectors such as home wear and gifts, health and beauty and fashion all reported healthy year-on-year sales increases."
Mr Lowrey said he was optimistic for trading in 2013 but a new development of four retail units in East Walk will only help attract more shoppers to Yate. The new shops are due to be completed in the spring and national chains Marks and Spencer Simply Food, Costa Coffee and Sports Direct have already signed leases on the buildings.
The move is good news for Yate Shopping Centre which saw the closure of Peacocks, Burtons, Evans and a number of card shops in 2012.
"Last year was a year of major changes for the retail sector with many traditional high street names disappearing," said Mr Lowrey. "There will be more this year but we have to adjust to these changes to ensure the long-term viability of the centre.
"We are in talks with several operators interested in coming to Yate and we’ll have further major announcements about the centre to make later in the year."


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Our impact at the Chatbot Summit
Chatbot Summit is the global nexus for pioneers shaping the future of natural language interactions. This year we were proud to showcase our expertise in autonomously animated digital personas, redefining the landscape of personalized and scalable digital interfaces.
Our contribution to Chatbot Summit centered around the revolutionary concept of creating lifelike digital avatars endowed with the ability to automate and personalize interactions on a grand scale. Spearheading this narrative was our Board Member, Una Softic, who took the stage as a distinguished speaker.
Una’s insights delved into the transformative potential of autonomously animated digital beings. These entities not only captivate audiences with their lifelike expressions but also bring forth a paradigm shift in how we interact with digital interfaces. By seamlessly integrating automation and personalization, technology elevates user experiences to unprecedented heights.
The event served as a melting pot for influential brands, global technology leaders, and burgeoning startups united by a common vision—to build unparalleled natural language experiences and unleash them onto the market. Our presence at Chatbot Summit underscored our commitment to being at the forefront of this movement, driving innovation that resonates across industries.
Our contribution to Chatbot Summit solidifies our position as trailblazers in the era personalized and scalable digital platforms. As we continue to pioneer the convergence of technology and human-like interaction, the summit stands testament to our dedication to shaping the future of digital experiences.

domain: news


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For all the unprecedented scalability and convenience of cloud computing, there’s one way it falls short: reliability.
Just ask Jeff Malek, cofounder of BigDoor, a Seattle company whose game software is hosted on the public servers of Amazon. Last April, problems in a Northern Virginia data center crippled Amazon’s northeast operations, affecting many cloud-based businesses. Spotty service over four days left BigDoor scrambling to find technical solutions and issuing a steady stream of apologies to its 250 clients.
Since then, BigDoor has joined a growing number of companies that are seeking new ways of building outage-resistant systems in the cloud, often at additional expense and inconvenience.
Major cloud providers such as Salesforce.com, Microsoft, and Google have all experienced outages. During a 30-day period in August and September, for instance, Google’s cloud-based apps experienced six service disruptions, according to the company’s Apps Status Dashboard, including one hour-long outage on September 7 that shut out several million users of Google Docs. Some outages have been caused by unpredictable events like lightning strikes, but software updates are frequently the culprit. Google said changes to its software caused Google Docs to go down, and an attempt to run updated code was also blamed for a massive e-mail outage affecting users of BlackBerry phones in Europe this month. (RIM, like Google, operates its own servers instead of relying on public cloud providers.)
Even though outages put businesses at immense risk, public cloud providers still don’t offer ironclad guarantees. In its so-called “service-level agreement,” Amazon says that if its services are unavailable for more than 0.05 percent of a year (around four hours) it will give the clients a credit “equal to 10% of their bill.” Some in the industry believe public clouds like Amazon should aim for 99.999 percent availability, or downtime of only around five minutes a year.
Until then, businesses must cope with the reality of imperfect service. “For me, [service agreements] are created by bureaucrats and lawyers,” says Malek. “What I care about is how dependable the cloud service is, and what a provider has done to prepare for outages.”
Amazon has computing data centers in five regions around the world. Companies can opt to run applications in multiple regions as a precautionary measure—the same way you’d back up your computer to an external hard drive. Immediately after the big outage in April, BigDoor upgraded to host its services in multiple Amazon regions. However, adding that layer of protection led to a 5 percent increase in the company’s monthly cloud bills. And getting applications to communicate seamlessly across isolated regions requires “extra resources, money, and time,” says Malek.
Netflix, which uses Amazon’s cloud to stream videos, is another company that is putting engineering effort into protecting against cloud failures. Following the problems at Amazon, the company developed Chaos Gorilla, internal software that allows its engineers simulate how effectively Netflix’s systems can reroute data when a network zone goes down.
One company that says it wasn’t affected by recent cloud problems is SimpleGeo, a San Francisco startup that uses Amazon to serve location-awareness tools to its clients. SimpleGeo emerged unscathed from the Amazon outage thanks to its use of a technique called back-pressure routing, which avoids network areas suffering slow response times. Cofounder and chief technology officer Joe Stump compares the technology to a driver’s adjusting speed or switching lanes on a clogged highway. Although SimpleGeo may have dodged network outages, doing so came at a substantial cost. “We have three engineers dedicated full time to building internal tools to manage our infrastructure,” he says.
Indeed, Stump says only one thing is 100 percent certain when it comes to the cloud: “You always have to architect your systems under an assumption of failure.”
DeepMind’s cofounder: Generative AI is just a phase. What’s next is interactive AI.
“This is a profound moment in the history of technology,” says Mustafa Suleyman.
What to know about this autumn’s covid vaccines
New variants will pose a challenge, but early signs suggest the shots will still boost antibody responses.
Human-plus-AI solutions mitigate security threats
With the right human oversight, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can help keep business and customer data secure
Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation
From million-dollar slide shows to Steve Jobs’s introduction of the iPhone, a bit of show business never hurt plain old business.
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Port of Pascagoula traffic falls
PASCAGOULA — The Port of Pascagoula’s public terminals moved 700,876 tons of cargo last year, almost 130,000 tons, or 16 percent, less than it moved in 2008, according to data released by the Jackson County Port Authority.
Port Director Mark McAndrews tells The Mississippi Press that in 2008, the port moved 829,736 tons of cargo, about 82 percent of which was forest products or frozen poultry.
Forest products fell 20 percent to 270,385 tons in 2009, down 69,172 tons.
Iron and steel cargoes rose from 489 tons in 2008 to 1,879 tons in 2009, while chemical cargoes rose 33 percent from 42,237 tons to 56,314 tons year-over-year.
Miscellaneous cargo, or goods the port does not handle on a recurring basis, fell 71 percent in 2009 to 29,648 tons.
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From Home Furnishing Business
A Look Ahead
By Home Furnishings Business in Retail Technology on April 2007
With a few exceptions, the furniture industry hasnt lived on the cutting edge of speeding product to consumers, so its no surprise that a lot of furniture stores trail retailers in other sectors such as consumer electronics, apparel and appliances when it comes to adapting the latest and greatest technology for their business.
That said, more and more retailers are putting information systems to better use in their operations, and automation vendors say technologies are on the way that while not always brand new, havent been used as much in furniture stores to date as in some other sectors.
There are a number of areas where furniture retailers can expect technology enhancements within the next year or two, but some already are givens in other industries.
The furniture industry is so far behind whats going on for technology that the leading edge is several hills beyond the horizon, said Russell Higgins, a principal with Myriad Software in San Diego. What were looking at in the next couple of years is not new technology by any stretch of the imagination.What to Expect
Myriad is concentrating on product development for Web sites, enhancing retailers role as service providers.
Retailer Web sites are a big area companies like ours are going to have to develop tools for, Higgins said, noting that retailers use of the Internet reflects its tech status relative to other industries. Most retailers dont even want to put pricing on their Web site, much less sell there. I think theyre going to face pressure, not just from other sectors, but also in furniture from people like Pier One, Crate & Barrel and Restoration Hardware who are selling furniture on the Web.
A retailer should know whether a customer in the store has visited its Web site, and get ready for a generation that expects more response and access via the Internet.
At a minimum, consumers are going to want to be able to go in (a Web site) and create a shopping cart or do some sort of room planning, Higgins said.
Higgins said retailers can expect more applications to automate many aspects of customer service.
What do people want to know about their purchase? When it arrives at the store and when they can expect delivery, he said. Retailers should be able to let them know when the goods arrive at the store from the manufacturer. Its an event-triggering mentality that generates an e-mail to the customer.
Creating a seamless flow of information among and between systems is a key development area at San Diego-based Escalate Retail, said Roy Martin, product manager.
Folks are looking to increase and enhance the customer experience, he said. We hear people talk about that all the time, but what that means relative to technology is creating a seamless environment for all ways they actually have that experience. For example, a customer might buy something on the sales floor, return it on the Web, or exchange it through an in-store kiosk. Information should flow seamlessly among all those.
That demands a common services layer in the system.
What are all the bits and pieces that need to be tied together and how do I integrate them? Martin said. In the past that was a simple file transfer, or sometimes keying a Web sale, for example, into the stores main information system. Create a layer that indicates what needs to be transferred.
Loyalty programs, especially tech support for Web malls in which retailers team up for a shared Web presence, is another area of interest for Escalate.
It might be consumer electronics and furniture retailers, for example, Martin said. That loyalty should transfer between retailers. If a shopper needs a television and the furniture to go with it, those points can go to either retailer.
Room-planning software that integrates manufacturers catalogs and electronic data interchange will be a priority, said Larry Stark, chairman of Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Profitsystems.
Everyone doing any sales training is pushing room planning and selection up to and including computerized planning, he said. If youre doing room planning, that indicates youre doing a lot of special orders, which is the most profitable type of business. With special orders, you dont have any dogswhatever products been ordered has already been sold.
Stark noted that techology that combines merchandising and EDI right when consumers make their decision lessens the potential for buyer remorse. Seamless interplay among various systems also is a focus at Profitsystems.
We look at our expertise (in) inventory and accounts receivables management, but the main thrust of our development today is tightening our integration to other applications to the point it seems like one system (to the user) for processes such as GPS routing, EDI and manufacturers catalogs.
Ren Baker, president of CDS Solutions in Lancaster, Pa., said technology to build sales force productivity has great potential, especially for small to mid-size retailers.
Its about identifying who the customer is and how to market to the right customer at the right time. Can we start to predict when people buy, what they want to buy, and how is the best way to market to them in the future? he said. Its all about capturing minute transaction details and mapping information from outside furniture, such as leveraging data from private label lines of credit as to when they buy furniture and what sorts of offers they respond to. Personalized one-to-one marketing. ... Thats a gold mine when its done right, but you need databases, transaction histories and (leverage) that into business rules that drive the sales force.
The increased amount of product hitting retailers docks directly from overseas will influence their technology investment, said Gloria Walsh, product marketing manager for Mt. Arlington, N.J.-based Storis Management Systems.
With everybody buying by container, people have a lot more concern now about importing items and freight and how its handled and whats the best way they can manage that in the system (in terms of) customer expectations, she said. When you deal with a domestic warehouse, sometimes you could get things in a week or two, but with a container thats going to take eight weeks. If the shipment runs late, youre not just disappointing one customer. There may be 30 customers who are linked to that container. The access to that information and managing that is critical.
Mark Van Winkle, director of sales at Storis, said retailers are looking for more e-commerce capability.
Theres also CRM packages, contact managementtheyre always looking to do that more efficiently, he said.
Walsh added that those functions are very important to small stores.
If they dont have a big advertising budget, if theyre sending out a circular or a coupon or some sort of a promotion, they want to be sure they can track everybody who comes into the door to track how successful this promotion was, she said. Did it work? How many people came in, what sales increased, what zip codes increased based on our mailing? Having robust contact management and reporting systems can enable you do do that.Areas Affected At Retail
How will these technologies affect retailers in specific areas of their operation, such as inventory control, merchandising or delivery?
Escalates Martin said seamless communication among selling tools such as the Web and kiosks and between customer-generated and internal information will change the retail landscape.
We may be forced to a more mobile POS environment where were using PDAs and handheld computers to receive alerts, he said. If you want to create that ultimate experience for the customer, youll have to spend some money on devices. Fortunately, the prices on things like tablet computers and PDAs are coming down. Because people must be more mobile in order to not only react but also be proactive on things such as instant alerts on product outages, you should be able to schedule delivery and service on the sales floor.
With more choices for GPS delivery and routing systems, retailers have an opportunity trimming costs in that expense-intense function, said Stark at Profitsystems.
If a store is already profitable, any little increase in sales or efficiency has a huge effect on the bottom line, he said, adding that the average store has a 3 percent profit margin. But once you get past break even, you get 25 percent on each sales dollar, not 3 percent. The same is true for reducing your expenses.
New applications for EDI and radio-frequency identification embedded in products will affect logistics and inventory management, said Myriads Higgins.
Right now we do a great job with EDI, but I think companies like ours will have to extend that to the transportation system when you consider the impact of off-shoring, he said. Are all those plants overseas online in real time with EDI? My understanding is that a lot of information has to get rekeyed, and its important because the manufacturer is a point of information access for retailers ... Now theres not only truck transport to deal with, but also the high seas issue.
Down the road, watch for permanent chip technology built into every product.
It will probably be perfected in the grocery business first to the point where you bring your cart to checkout and you immediately have your entire purchase rung up with a single scan, Higgins said.
That kind of technology, in furniture more applicable to receiving and inventory tracking, would require a big critical mass in furniture on both retailers and vendors parts.
Everyone has to hold hands and start to play the game at the same time for it to make sense, he said. In a lot of sectors, the retailers got so big that they could make the rules that manufacturers had to meet to do business with them. In the furniture industry, it was traditionally the other way around, and I can tell you retailers have felt the pain as a result.
Baker at CDS believes retailers will be stocking less and focusing on customer relationships, diverting investment in warehousing and inventory to the merchandising side.
The ones who are driving change in the industry are going to force this separation, he said. Technology has never been a differentiator, its a tool to drive success. It wont make or break a retailer.
Baker predicted that eventually, smaller retailers could look to larger counterparts as distributors.
As those companies move away from having to stock everything ... a lot of their wholesale activity will happen through larger retailers who have the big warehouses and systems selling to smaller retailers, he said, noting whats already happening in sectors such as appliances. The large guys will do almost no special orders because the transaction costs too much. Part of this isnt in our control, but determined by the customer. Home furnishings will follow the path of every other retail sectoryoure going to see some Darwinism here. HFBSenior Editor Jo Fleischer contributed to this report.


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WEConnect International stood beside corporate members Accenture, Intel and Procter & Gamble (P&G) in South Africa on Sunday at the Mandela 100 Global Citizen Festival to announce new commitments in spend with women-owned businesses. Intel has committed to double its global commitment from $100 million to $200 million. Accenture has committed to spending $100 million with women-owned businesses in South Africa over the next three years. P&G announced it has completed its first $100 million commitment in only 1 year and has also committed to tripling its current spend with women-owned businesses in South Africa to $30 million over the next three years. These announcements complement and add to past WEConnect International corporate member commitments that represent over $1 billion in spend with women.
In addition to new spend, each corporation will work with WEConnect International to track and report on the impact of its spend with women-owned businesses in their supply chains, providing transparency and critical insights into the potential of gender-inclusive sourcing to promote economic development.
“Today, women-owned businesses earn less than 1% of the trillions of dollars spent with vendors by large corporations and governments,” says WEConnect International CEO & Co-Founder Elizabeth A. Vazquez. “Together with Accenture, Intel and P&G, we are moving the needle forward to put more money into the hands of women.”
The announcement was highlighted at the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) High-Level Reception for the Mandela 100 Global Citizen Festival, giving each corporation an opportunity to discuss their commitment to buy more from women-owned businesses in developing countries, especially in South Africa.
Following September’s inaugural #SheIsEqual Summit in New York, co-sponsored by P&G and Global Citizen, P&G took the opportunity on Sunday to make a focused commitment in South Africa. “We are proud to partner with many women-owned businesses that have become part of our supply chain in South Africa, producing award-winning content for our brand campaigns and providing an array of services such as construction, marketing activations, and IT support,” says Shereen Wardakan, Sub-Saharan Africa Marketing Purchases Leader for P&G. “In fact, we recently awarded a 2.5 million dollar contract with one women-owned, majority black-owned construction business for our femcare local production expansion project.”
About WEConnect International
WEConnect International is a global non-profit that identifies, educates and certifies women’s business enterprises based outside of the U.S. that are at least 51% owned, managed, and controlled by one or more women, and then connects them with multinational corporate buyers. WEConnect International members represent over $1 trillion in annual purchasing power and a deep commitment to supplier development and inclusive sourcing. Since 2009, WEConnect International has led the movement towards global supplier diversity and has supported members with developing and growing their own global inclusive sourcing efforts. For more information, please visit the website here.


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Filings with the Eurasian Economic Commission indicate Apple is preparing to launch a large batch of new or refreshed MacBooks in the near future, with seven model numbers found to have been added to the regulator's database on Thursday.
The filings for the model numbers are listed at the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) website as A2141, A2147, S2158, A2159, A2179, A2182, and A2251. The model numbers are similar to those of other MacBooks, indicating they could be from the same product family, with the additional description of the numbers being for "portable" computers seemingly confirming that suspicion.
The EEC filings are legally required for devices to be sold with encryption-related elements in Russia and other countries, including Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. While the filings typically provide very little data, aside from the existence of models and product categories, it does serve as an indicator that Apple is planning to launch products in the coming months, or even sooner.
The model numbers were first reported by MacRumors.
Aside from a refresh of existing models, there is a possibility the model numbers could be related to a 16-inch MacBook Pro option that has surfaced in rumors. Possibly a new larger tier beyond the current 15-inch versions, the 16-inch model could use OLED displays supplied by Samsung.
There has also been speculation on the possibility of Apple using mini LED backlights to create even larger models, possibly reviving the 17-inch MacBook Pro the company discontinued in 2012.


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Patreon Acquires Clear Talent to Bolster Technical Recruiting Organization
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 31, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Patreon, a platform for creators of all kinds and their most passionate fans, today announced that it has acquired tech recruiting firm, Clear Talent, to rapidly scale its talent acquisition efforts and build a best-in-class engineering, product, and design team. Clear Talent will bring nearly 40 technical recruiters, sourcers and human resources professionals to Patreon, with CEO Rockman Ha (former Talent Leader at Transfix, MongoDB, and Gilt) joining the company as Head of Talent Acquisition. As the creator economy continues to expand, the acquisition is a critical investment towards materializing Patreon's mission of being the platform for creators to build their businesses and connect with their members.
"Clear Talent brings an impressive track record of recruiting top technical talent along with strong alignment with Patreon's core company values,'' said Tiffany Stevenson, Chief People Officer at Patreon. "With an ambitious roadmap of new features ahead for our creators and their members, we're excited to welcome Clear Talent as we significantly grow our teams and continue the work to champion all creators."
"Having spent years focused on aligning exceptional people with the right opportunities, it is rare to come across companies as unique and mission-driven as Patreon," said Rockman Ha, CEO of Clear Talent. "We are deeply inspired by the passionate team behind Patreon's mission and look forward to joining the cause and building a world-class technical team."
The acquisition is the latest development following a banner year of growth and continued investment in the expansion of creator and fan experiences on the platform. In April, Patreon announced that it had raised a Series F financing round of $155 million, bringing the company's total valuation to $4 billion. Patreon also announced a string of new executive hires with the appointment of Julian Gutman as Chief Product Officer (formerly of Instagram), Tiffany Stevenson as Chief People Officer (formerly of Box), and most recently, Utkarsh Stravistava as Senior VP of Engineering (formerly of Google). On the product side, Patreon this year launched support for a wave of new languages and currencies, along with updates to creators' income dashboards. In the months ahead, Patreon has plans to expand its platform capabilities on desktop and mobile, increase international offerings, and create new content consumption tools.
Co-founded in 2013 by YouTube star Jack Conte and Sam Yam, Patreon is a membership platform that connects creators and their most passionate fans. Spearheading the creator economy, Patreon's 200,000+ creators have connected with more than 7 million fans on Patreon and creators have earned more than $2 billion since the company's inception. Creators of all types - from podcast, video, music, visual arts, gaming and more - use Patreon to share exclusive content, monetize their craft, and engage directly with their biggest fans via content and community. For more information about the company, visit: https://www.patreon.com/


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We have been supplying McDonald’s Restaurants and its contractors with our X-Clad system for 30 years and, more than 900 stores later, we continue to provide our brick slip systems for the latest rollout of new restaurant designs across the UK. The new store designs include both single and two-storey factory built modular buildings with a contemporary palette of mixed finishes. X-Clad is usually installed off-site before the building modules are transported to site to be craned into position.
DSM Roofing have recently completed a new single storey design restaurant in Falkirk and a two-storey design in Welshpool. We supplied 50mm thick X-Clad and Smooth Anthracite slips and corners from our Britannia range, which creates a striking contrast with the timber cladding.
DSM Roofing has completed over thirty new McDonald’s Restaurants in the past 18 months, including one in Oakham, Rutland, which made the news for being the last county in the UK to open a McDonald’s. We supplied Bradstone Rough Dressed Cotswold stone slips and corners in mixed sizes and our 17mm thick X-Clad system, along with whole Rough Dressed Cotswold blocks to create the boundary wall.
Dean Foulkes, director of DSM Roofing said “We have worked with Eurobrick for over 10 years and in that time have completed a great number of projects including several key McDonald’s stores which required unusual materials, such as natural stone and bespoke brick slips. The programme to rollout new McDonald’s stores all over the UK has progressed well and Eurobrick have helped achieve this with excellent service and always doing everything possible to keep projects on track.”


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While it may seem that the cruise industry is on pause right now (and, honestly, it kind of is), there is still plenty going on behind the scenes. Carnival Corporation, the parent company for plenty of your favorite cruise lines, has several planned for the next couple years. Among these plans is a grand total of 18 new ships slated for arrival between now and 2025, nine of which will run on liquefied natural gas! Let’s scratch the surface of the Carnival orderbook and take a peek at a few of these ships of the future.
The newest ship for Costa, Firenze, is set to arrive in October 2020. It should be known that it is being constructed in the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy, however, and coronavirus may end up delaying it’s deployment. It will be a Vista-class ship with 15 decks that will hold 3936 passengers and 1450 crew. It will join its sister ship, Costa Venezia, in China, though not before a month-long stint in the Mediterranean to celebrate its deployment. The goal of this ship, according to Costa, is to bring “the Italian Aesthetic lifestyle to Chinese guests while delivering Italian culture and experience to them.” Based on the success of Venezia, it’s a safe bet that this ship will be a hit too.
Holland America Ryndam
Also being constructed at Fincantieri, Ryndam is the next ship up for Holland America, and it’s set for a May 2021 delivery. It’s going to hold 2668 guests that can take part in the exciting new focus for the vessel: music! (You know, Ryndam is like rhythm? Get it?) This is actually not Holland America’s first vessel named Ryndam, so you can be forgiven if you are a bit confused by the name. In fact, HA’s very first Ryndam was originally called the Rijndam, which in some circles was Americanized to Ryndam. The new ship plans to have the same level of dining and other experiences that Holland America regulars will recognize, but also introduces the Music Walk, a section of the ship that features five (yep, five!) different music venues with live performances. There’s a chamber music spot, a blues club, and a venue dedicated to Billboard hits.
Seabourn’s next ship in their fleet will be Venture, set to arrive in June 2021. It’s the smallest ship in the entire Carnival Corporation orderbook as of right now, with a capacity of 264. That is, it’s the smallest aside from another Seabourn ship that is the exact same size, though that one is currently unnamed and won’t arrive for another year past Venture. Venture is set to be an “ultra-luxury” ship that sails in polar regions. The coolest part of the whole vessel, though, are the two custom-built submarines onboard. Woah. Also, kayaks, mountain bikes and more. This ship is all about exploration and adventure, and we’re into it.
While these three ships are exciting, there are fifteen more to look forward to over the next few years. Even though we may not be ready to hop on a cruise just yet, these ships signal the innovations that the cruise industry has up its sleeve. So, sit back and start planning your future vacations, because there’s plenty to look forward to!


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Final Fantasy XIII trilogy announced for PC
Square Enix has announced the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy will come to PC beginning next month.
First, Final Fantasy XIII will launch from October 10 for £10.99/€12.99 on Square Enix's online store as well as Steam. No exact dates were given for Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, but the publisher confirmed all three games will be out by next Spring.
Square also announced the saga to date has shipped 11 million units since its launch on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, beginning with FFXIII in March 2010, FFXIII-2 in February 2012 and Lightning Returns in February of this year.


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Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer on Monday announced that his office has filed a civil lawsuit against the operators of Dulceria El Venado in Pacoima for illegally dispensing prescription drugs without a license.
The store, located at 11653 N. Glenoaks Blvd., sells miscellaneous items including candy, snacks and herbs. Investigations revealed that the store allegedly sold illegal, mislabeled and counterfeit pharmaceuticals including the injectable anti-inflammatory drug Diprospan. The defendants did not have a license to sell pharmaceuticals, nor was the business a registered pharmacy. Investigators conducted multiple undercover operations to purchase combinations of counterfeit and unlicensed pharmaceuticals.
The lawsuit seeks the permanent termination of the lease at the business and an injunction prohibiting the defendants from illegally selling any pharmaceutical products as well as operating any business that manufactures, sells or stores commonly counterfeited goods. The defendants could also face up to $2,500 in penalties for each violation.
"My office and our law enforcement partners will fight to protect consumers from the health and safety hazards posed by illegal pharmaceuticals," Feuer said in a statement. "We'll continue to aggressively prosecute people who dispense these drugs that endanger communities throughout Los Angeles."
The lawsuit stems from a crackdown operation coordinated through the Health Authority Law Enforcement Taskforce that targets distributors and sellers of illegal pharmaceuticals at swap meets and small local stores.


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3 studies tout Dallas-Fort Worth as destination for startups and tech professionals
from Dallas Innovates
Three new studies have named Dallas-Forth an ecosystem that’s ideal for startups and an attractive place for IT professionals to move to and work. “Have laptop, will travel.” That’s the mindset of tech workers who said in the first study—titled Tech on the Move, and released Wednesday by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA)—that they're willing to move to another city to better themselves. Dallas is the fourth most-popular destination on the list.
7701 Las Colinas Blvd., Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063


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With VMware’s user conference beginning next week in Las Vegas, security vendors Symantec and McAfee are readying new products designed to lock down the software running in virtual machine environments.
On Monday McAfee will unveil Total Protection for Virtualization, a customizable security suite designed to run within virtual machines. The product doesn’t include new technology — it ships with McAfee’s VirusScan, AntiSpyware, Host Intrusion Prevention and ePolicy Orchestrator — but it does come with a new licensing model that should make things a little easier for administrators.
McAfee plans to release the product by year’s end with a simplified software license, so that users don’t have to pay separately for each copy they have running in different virtual machine sessions on a computer. “We will be selling this suite per physical server, regardless of how many virtual machines may be on this server,” said Kenneth Tom, a senior product marketing manager with McAfee.
McAfee will release the pricing for Total Protection for Virtualization when the software ships.
Symantec, meanwhile, will give VMworld attendees a first peek at its Symantec Security Virtual Machine. The product is a “software appliance” that includes a Linux OS, which runs as a guest operating system on the server being protected.
Symantec is using new security APIs (application programming interfaces) created by VMware to let third-party products peer into virtual machine sessions to monitor their security. Symantec’s software uses the APIs to communicate with small monitoring programs running within these different sessions.
Symantec is one of about a dozen security vendors developing software that takes advantage of the APIs, called VMsafe. McAfee demonstrated its own VMsafe prototypes back in February.
The Symantec Security Virtual Machine is a prototype and does not yet appear on Symantec’s product road map, but it will likely be months before VMware ships new versions of its products that support the VMsafe APIs.
VMworld 2008 runs from Monday to Thursday at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas.


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J.K. Rowling’s 'The Ickabog' Coming in Fall
Scholastic has announced that it will publish J.K. Rowling’s new fairy tale, The Ickabog, on November 10 in the U.S. and Canada in hardcover and e-book formats. International editions will follow soon after. Rowling is donating royalties through her charitable trust, The Volant Trust, for groups that have been affected by the pandemic.
The book, which was first serialized for free online this summer, began more than 10 years ago as a bedtime story for Rowling’s children. The author launched an online contest inviting children from across the U.S. and Canada to submit illustrations, and the winning entries will be featured in the book.


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|Scott Donaton, editor of 'Advertising Age.'
The bizarre behavior by some of the biggest names in movies, music and sports was sparked by reports that sales of Allen Iverson-branded merchandise rose sharply after that NBA bad boy's recent felony arrest. It also comes on the heels of new print ads for Pony sneakers that back the disgraced former baseball star Pete Rose in his bid for entry to the Hall of Fame -- despite being banned from the sport for gambling.
"Celebrity endorsement deals have been on the wane for the last decade," said a leading celebrity-marketing executive who spoke on the condition that his name appear in boldface type. (We declined.) "That's largely because of concerns the celebrity
|Allen Iverson's Philadelphia Police Department booking sheet from recent arrest.
Click to see larger image.
"Now we're going to see these endorsement deals come roaring back in hopes endorsers will conduct themselves in a scandalous manner," the executive said. "We're writing 'no-morals' clauses into our contracts as we speak. If the celebrity doesn't get a negative hit in a gossip column in the first three months, the sponsor can pull out without penalty."
Hollywood would love it
Not surprisingly, Hollywood agents want a piece of the action, sensing another content-commerce convergence in the TiVo age. "Just imagine!" said an agent who got so excited he spilled his nonfat latte. "News reports saying that the suspect, whose new film opens Friday in theaters everywhere, fled the scene of the crime and eluded the cops wearing Nike's newest running shoe. Sales would skyrocket!"
"Think of it," he continued: "A sitcom star leading California police on a televised freeway chase. Wouldn't you want that to be your new sedan he or she is driving? Wouldn't you want to run a commercial immediately after the capture, noting it would have been a clean getaway if the actor had your turbo-charged sports car instead of that clunky SUV? How much would a soft-drink company pay to plaster its logo on the roof of the vehicle for those helicopter shots? The possibilities are endless!"
Agents for actress Winona Ryder denied rumors the film star was considering cutting category-exclusive deals with marketers in which she would in the future only be accused of shoplifting their branded merchandise.
The wave of "celebrity crimes," from petty offenses to felony charges, picked up steam in the weeks after the clean-cut (read: boring) NBA champion Kobe Bryant appeared on a basketball court in Harlem in a transparent attempt to gain street credibility. Bryant's publicity stunt -- he was wearing Nike on the court -- came after Adidas dropped his shoe contract. In the same week, Reebok expressed unwavering support for Allen Iverson.
"Nice guys do finish last," said the sports-marketing executive. "In the current media environment, unpaid media appearances are more valuable than paid advertising. Besides, it's the only thing marketers can afford in the recession. Their budgets have been chopped more times than a Martha Stewart salad. And, let's face it: Being good doesn't get you on the cover of The Star."
If the trend holds, sales of merchandise bearing Martha Stewart's name appear poised for an uptick as questions continue to swirl about her sale of ImClone Systems shares just prior to its stock-price collapse. Asked if she agrees that any publicity is good publicity, the domestic diva declined to comment. Said Martha: "I just want to focus on my salad."


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Progress on environmental sustainability and cybersecurity weigh heavily on the Canadian C-suite, a study from IBM says.
At its annual conference in Toronto on Thursday, the firm released Canadian results from a global study of more than 3,000 CEOs worldwide.
For the first time, a majority of Canadian respondents (56%) ranked sustainability as a high priority.
“This represents a significant leap from a year ago when less than a third (31%) of Canadian leaders cited sustainability among their priorities,” the release said.
An even greater proportion, 59%, accepted responsibility for business impacts on the environment, amid mounting pressure to act, the study said.
The greatest pressure came from board members and investors, cited by 79% and 68% of respondents, respectively. Additional pressure came from regulators (56% of respondents), government (55%) and ecosystem partners (52%).
Only 17% of CEOs cited pressure from consumers, and 12% cited pressure from employees.
While more than half of CEOs (53%) expected to achieve their sustainability targets, 24% said the targets announced by the government for their industries weren’t achievable.
Further, less than half of the Canadian CEOs (47%) felt their sustainability investments would accelerate business growth.
CEOs who make progress on sustainability see opportunity where others see cost, IBM said in its study: “From the strategies they embrace to the stakeholders they engage to the digital capabilities they leverage, leading CEOs approach sustainability as an opportunity that can drive growth and positively impact their business.”
Cybersecurity awareness was also a growing concern. It was cited as a top priority by 57% of respondents, compared to 46% last year.
“[C]ybersecurity awareness appears to be growing ever more important in the face of increasingly costly and frequent attacks, the price tag of which rose to $6.75 million per incident on average last year, an all-time high for Canada,” the release said.


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GM has auctioned off two iconic Corvettes to raise funds for Durham Children’s Aid Foundation.
GM recently auctioned the last 7th generation Chevrolet Corvette and first 8th generation mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette Stingray built for the Canadian market, raising more than $400,000 for the foundation in honour of Sharon Clark and Sharon’s Kids, an organization founded to help support those in need.
Clark, a former GM employee, started Sharon’s Kids in 1968 at the Oshawa Assembly Plant. She decided to skip the office gift exchange and adopt a family in need instead.
With the help of GM Canada employees, Clark grew her program and continued to support those in need in Durham Region for more than 50 years.
Clark passed away in April 2020 after a courageous battle with cancer.
“Thank you to everyone who came together in the spirit of giving and congratulations to the winner who now owns a piece of Canadian history,” states GM Canada’s President and Managing Director Scott Bell. “GM Canada and our community have supported Durham Children’s Aid for more than 50 years, and I am so proud that we are honouring Sharon’s legacy to make the holidays a little brighter for children that need it most in the Durham Region.”
Both vehicles went to one bidder in a live auction hosted by Manheim Canada auction house, who also donated their services for the cause.
The highest bid for the 7th generation Corvette was $187,500 and the 8th generation mid-engine Corvette Stingray sold for $181,000.
Durham Children’s Aid Foundation also received an additional $35,000 in online donations from Unifor, GM Canada, its employees and retirees, and the community.
The winning bidder will also receive a day on the track at Canadian racing legend and former Corvette driver, Ron Fellow’s Performance Driving Schools at Spring Mountain, Nevada and Canadian Tire Mosport Park, Ontario.
Leslie McLean, manager of signature programs for Durham Children’s Aid Foundation, says the foundation is “extremely grateful” to GM Canada for their generosity, as well as Manheim Canada for donating the facilitation of the online auction.
“These funds will go directly into critical programming the foundation provides for children and youth in need,” she says. “This is such a wonderful tribute to such an inspiring person and Sharon would be elated knowing GM Canada is continuing her spirit of giving.”
Donations can still be made, which will help buy Christmas gifts for children in need this holiday season.
The Corvette’s move to a mid-engine layout meant engineers had to change pretty much everything under the skin, including the car’s suspension. Unlike the C7 before it, the C8 couldn’t borrow its suspension layout from its predecessor and had to be built from scratch. This video gives us our most detailed look at the design yet, along with expert analysis from an engineer.
If you’ve been in a C8, you’ll know it rides extremely well. It’s able to cruise over bumps without issue and handle corners with precision and poise. Dan Edmunds recently published this in-depth video on YouTube analyzing the C8 Corvette’s front and rear suspension layout, providing some helpful insight into why it’s able to perform as well as it does.
The answer lies in the suspension’s geometry. Because there’s no engine up front and plenty of space in the rear, engineers had a lot of room to work with, giving the C8 a double-wishbone setup with large, long control arms all around. Importantly, they were able to give the car L-shaped lower control arms, meaning they could tune different bushings to absorb lateral forces and sharp road impacts, resulting in a better ride for occupants. It’s amazing that just one generation ago, the Corvette was still using transverse leaf springs.
The Build and Price configurator is finally live for the 2021 Corvette Stingray, giving buyers a chance to spec their perfect mid-engined sports car. While it can easily be said that the configurator gives Corvette buyers options than ever before, it turns out that some new additions have been excluded from the website. Thanks to YouTuber and salesman Rick Corvette Conti, we now have an idea as to what those accessories will be.
According to a recent upload, the 2021 model year will bring several new accessories, such as the previously announced Jake logo all-weather floor mats, cargo mat and hood graphic. And while it is odd that these confirmed accessories are missing from the configurator at this point, they aren’t nearly as cool as the other parts GM is keeping from you.
General Motors will reportedly be rolling out a few new carbon fiber bits for the 2021 Corvette Stingray. This isn’t a huge surprise, considering just how popular the stuff is with mid-engined car buyers. The General will be adding three new parts to the catalogue, starting with a new carbon fiber roof bow graphic. Somewhat awkward looking, this new piece will run between the B-pillars on the car’s roof. There will also be some carbon fiber intake accents, which of course sit on the car’s hips nowadays. Best of all however is the addition of the visible carbon-fiber High Wing setup.
Now, it is important to note that none of these new parts are listed on the 2021 Corvette configurator, nor are they listed on Chevrolet’s order system. Conti says that he believes this will change once ordering officially opens, at which point the full configurator should launch. If you’d like to hear more about these findings, the conversation about them starts at around the 5:45 mark of the video.
If the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray’s nearly 500-hp V-8 engine fails to entice you, then the forthcoming Corvette Z06’s 650-hp V-8 ought to do the trick. And it’s not just the horsepower output that’s changed. The Z06’s engine will be an entirely different animal from its lesser sibling, increasing performance and bringing an entirely different character to the car. Read on to find out why.
2022 Chevrolet Corvette Z06: Twin-Cam, Twin-Turbo, Flat-Plane
Unlike the LT2 engine of the Stingray, the Z06’s V-8 will forgo pushrod valves and a cross-plane crank for dual-overhead cams and a flat-plane crank. The resulting engine should possess the rev-happy nature and aural thrills of the Corvette C8.R’s V-8, which also happens to use twin cams and a flat-plane crank.
While Chevy will not drop the C8.R’s 5.5-litre engine into the Z06, the two Corvettes’ V-8s are expected to share a number of common pieces. The Z06’s V-8 should be smaller than its race car kin, reportedly sharing parts (and perhaps its entire block) with Cadillac’s Blackwing V-8 engine. We’d wager it’ll ultimately displace in the neighbourhood of 4.2 litres. V-8s using flat-plane crankshafts lack the natural balance of a cross-plane crank, and larger displacements exacerbate the vibration and harshness of this arrangement. By limiting the displacement, employing lightweight pistons, and using a short-stroke crank, we expect the Z06 to be tolerable for owners who regularly drive their cars in traffic.
To compensate for its lesser displacement, the Z06’s engine is due to adopt a pair of turbochargers. Unlike Cadillac’s Blackwing engine, which houses two turbos in the valley between its heads, the Z06’s V-8 is expected to rely on outboard-mounted turbos. All in, the high-performance Corvette model purportedly produces 650 hp. Like the Stingray, look for the Z06 to rely on an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox to send all those horses to its rear wheels. Revisions to the car’s suspension and a set of sticky summer tires—that are properly wide at the rear—are sure to keep the Z06’s power from overwhelming its drive wheels and chassis.
2022 Chevrolet Corvette Z06: Carbon Fiber Fever
In addition to the added power, the 2022 Corvette Z06 will welcome a number of weight-saving measures. Don’t worry, creature comforts will still abound, and there’s no indication the Z06 will ditch the likes of the Stingray’s large digital gauge cluster or touchscreen infotainment system.
Nevertheless, look for the model to feature a number of lightweight materials for items such as the exhaust, rear wing, front splitter, and even its wheels. Specifically, the 2022 Corvette Z06 will offer buyers the option to equip it with a set of carbon-fibre wheels. While such a setup is not new (vehicles from Porsche and Ford offer carbon fibre wheels), it’s still a relatively rare—and surely expensive—way for road-going cars to go about shedding mass.
2022 Chevrolet Corvette Z06: Shut Up And Take Our Money!
Although we hear the current pandemic is forcing Chevy to push back the Corvette Z06’s debut, we’re still hopeful the brand manages to take the wraps off the car in early 2021 and ship it to dealers before the end of the year as a 2022 model. That said, it’s possible the Z06 won’t arrive until sometime in 2022 as a 2023 model.
Regardless, prepare to spend a good chunk more change to get into the car. Frankly, we’ll be surprised if the Z06 stickers for anything south of $80,000. That’s pricey for a Corvette (consider the Stingray starts at $59,995). Still, compared to the 572-hp Porsche 911 Turbo, which starts at more than $170,000, the Z06 is sure to be a relative steal given its performance capabilities.
Mike Schickerowski was never supposed to drive, let alone go flat-out in a V8-powered car. The 44-year old Alberta resident was born with an eye condition that made him legally blind and disqualified him from driving. He got his sight back after undergoing an experimental surgery — then chose a Chevrolet Corvette as his first car.
Schickerowski told Canada’sGlobal News that he was born with nystagmus, a condition that “involves involuntary movement of your eyes.” Although he could see, objects were always out of focus. “If you’ve ever taken a photo with your camera and moved it slightly, or the object moved and it’s a blur, it’s the exact same symptoms. My brain would never interpret the image as a steady picture — it was always a blur,” he said.
For years, curing nystagmus was considered impossible. Schickerowski nonetheless underwent an experimental surgery at a clinic in California, and the procedure gave him his eyesight back. So he started the process of applying for a driver’s license and purchasing his first car, a seventh-generation Corvette.
Global News added Schickerowski bought his Corvette without seeing it, and before he took his driver’s test. He passed the test on his first try in July 2020, and has been enjoying his yellow coupe ever since.
“Some people said, ‘Oh, it’s Alberta, you need a truck,’ and sure, I like trucks. They’re nice, but everybody’s got a truck,” he told the publication. Although driving a Corvette is an unforgettable experience, Schickerowski said the best part of getting his vision back is being able to do things with his family, like taking his son fishing and taking his daughter out for ice cream. “I was never able to do that before on my own.”
The all-new 2020 Corvette breaks from tradition in more than one way. Not only is the powertrain now located behind the cockpit, making for the first-ever mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette, but convertible models also come with a foldable hardtop roof, also a first for the Corvette nameplate. Now, the operation of the 2020 Corvette convertible top is outlined in the following Corvette Academy video.
The video is short, timing out at one minute, 26 seconds in length, but does well in covering the basics of operating the 2020 Corvette convertible top.
Raising or lowering the top takes just 16 seconds, and can be performed at speeds up to 30 mph. To lower the top, first make sure there is enough room around the vehicle to do so, and that the trunk is fully closed. Next, start the engine, and depress the convertible top button on the armrest. The button is located on the bottom left of the armrest button layout.
Pressing this button will automatically lower the windows, and slide the foldable 2020 Corvette convertible top-down behind the cabin. A chime will sound to indicate that the top has been completely lowered. To raise the top, pull and hold the convertible top button on the armrest.
The 2020 Corvette convertible top can be remotely lowered using the key fob. Press and release the lock button, and then press and hold the convertible top button. The tonneau cover can also be raised remotely via the key fob by pressing and holding the lock button and then pressing the convertible top button. This latter feature is ideal for checking fluid levels.
The 2020 Corvette convertible comes with a unique “mid glass” section that can be lowered independently of the foldable hardtop. Press the corresponding button on the armrest near the convertible top button to operate this feature.
The prospect of a mid-engine Corvette set off speculation like we’ve never seen before — but how accurate were the things people expected of the car?
The eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette shocked the world when it was revealed. For the first time, the American sports car featured a mid-engine layout, a feature Chevrolet and its fans had hyped for years.
This wasn’t the only part of the vehicle subject to a flurry or rumours, however; once we saw the poorly camouflaged mule driving around, we knew there had to be more to the story than just an engine behind the driver.
As speculation circulated, a lot of guesses at future features for the C8 were discussed — some plausible, some not so much. Nobody would know if these features would show up on the production model until it was unveiled, after all.
We look back at eight rumours about the Corvette C8 from before it came out, and check whether they turned out true or false.
‘Set to be unveiled in 2017’ — False
Our very first rumour dates all the way back to 2014, when Car and Driver, as well as Jalopnik, thought the mid-engine Corvette was going to drop as early as 2017. Boy, were they (and we) wrong.
This was our first hint there would be a lot of gossip regarding this radical new vehicle — we also thought Chevy might name it the “Zora,” and that only 1,500 a year would be built at $150,000 each. We killed the 1,500-a-year rumour right away, though, as there’s no way GM would be able to make its development cost back with production numbers that low.
It would take an extra two years before the C8 generation would be revealed on its revolutionary platform.
‘Quarter-mile times in the low 11-second range’ — True
Everybody knows the most important aspect of a sports car is its quarter-mile time, right? Well, no, because otherwise, GM wouldn’t have spent so much time playing with the suspension — it would have just borrowed some axles from a Silverado and called it a day.
Nevertheless, straight-line performance has always been a staple of Corvette, and the C8 delivers on that as well. Although packing only 490 horsepower, the base model vehicle surprised us all with a zero-to-60-mph (-96-km/h) time of just 2.9 seconds. The base model C8 gives a lot of more expensive vehicles a literal run for their money.
In practical tests with the Z51 package and Magnetic Ride Control, the vehicle was able to run the aforementioned quarter-mile in 11.2 seconds.
‘Destined to get a manual transmission’ — False
A manual transmission is the cornerstone of any good sports car and has been a feature on the Corvette since the beginning, and we thought this tradition meant we’d see the feature in the mid-engine C8.
Nope. Corvette engineers squashed that theory, saying a manual transmission would be too complicated and wouldn’t fit, so, for the first time since 1953, “America’s sports car” won’t have a stickshift.
Besides the size constraints of the engine bay, Chevy had to contend with the apathy of American customers towards manuals, an attitude that’s slowly permeated Corvette sales over the past few decades.
‘A racing engine will power the streetcar’ — False
There are plenty of stories of street vehicles debuting with a “racing engine,” but the truth of the matter is most receive an engine with the same basic design as their racing sibling’s, but heavily modified for street use. Same goes for Corvette.
Thanks to a recent leak showing upcoming trim levels for the C8, we can see a 5.5-litre DOHC engine will be present in the Z06 trim, but comparing it to the C8.R, it seems it’ll be similar in displacement and basic design only. The racing motor for the C8.R is built by Pratt & Miller with carbon-fibre and other unobtainium parts for endurance racing. Almost none of these parts will carry over to the street version.
‘GM will build a Cadillac-badged version’ — False
On top of rumours, the C8 would get a Cadillac twin-turbo V8 (outlined below) it was postulated Cadillac might receive its own complete version of the vehicle. After all, Cadillac has previously used the Corvette platform under its XLR, and the Cadillac Racing team has done quite well in recent years.
A recent leak showed a key fob with the same design as the one destined to be used by the C8, but with a mysterious Cadillac badge where the famous Corvette logo should be, sending the internet into a frenzy of falsehoods.
A road-going sports car for the brand would have been interesting, but alas, nobody gets to eat at the Corvette table, and a Cadillac version will not be produced. As more proof, Cadillac has said that it’s going full electric in the near future, ending any sports car hopes.
‘The Corvette could wear the Zora name’ — True
The father of Corvette performance was Zora Arkus-Duntov, a Belgian immigrant who oversaw many aspects of the early vehicle’s development, and spearheaded multiple attempts to build a mid-engine version.
Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to see that dream become a reality, but the top-of-the-line C8 will carry his name as an homage to his dream. A 1,000-horsepower hybrid-assisted monster with a twin-turbocharged 5.5-litre V8 will be the ultimate tribute to the innovative and driven man that helped ensure Corvette would thrive for close to 70 years.
‘The 2020 Corvette will be prohibitively expensive’ — False
With all the innovation – and the costs associated with that – we expected the C8 Corvette was going to have an astronomical price, and pretty much everybody else did, too. Initial rumours suggested the C8 would cost up to USD$150,000, and we believed that number, especially with the horsepower figures being thrown around at the time.
When the vehicle was finally unveiled, we were pleasantly surprised with the starting price of just CDN$70,000, a damn sight lower than we ever would have expected for a vehicle designed from the ground up — but, hey, GM still has to sell these things!
While the base price is low, higher-trim models will no doubt bump that ask up, and with the horsepower figures the Z06 and ZR1 boast, we can see that USD$150,000 price tag becoming a reality — eventually.
‘Could run Cadillac’s Blackwing V8’ — False
Cadillac created a real gem of an engine in the Blackwing V8; the 4.2-litre engine featured dual-overhead-cams and two turbochargers to produce 550 horsepower and 640 lb.-ft. of torque. We thought maybe Chevrolet would poach this engine design, make a few tweaks, and put in under the rear glass of the C8 for a formidable powerplant, but we were wrong.
A five-year plan of the Corvette’s upcoming engine options showed us what was in store for the sports car, and it confirmed the Blackwing V8 would indeed remain solely a Cadillac product, and reside only in Cadillac vehicles — sort of.
In fact, no vehicle in the GM stable will receive the mill, as it’s been killed after being featured in just a few Cadillac sedans. Pity.
New colors, new features, and magneto dampers for all!
It seems almost foolish to be talking about the 2021 Chevrolet Corvette already, seeing as customer deliveries of the 2020 model have only just started. But at the rate things are going, a substantial share of existing 2020 orders could be rolled over into 2021. That’s due to some rather unfortunate timing, on the part of a UAW union strike last year that delayed the start of production.
But what’s more, it’s a relevant topic of discussion because the C8 Chevrolet Corvette is slated to change as it enters its second model year, and details have surfaced.
According to Corvette Blogger, the 2021 Chevrolet Corvette will see two new colors replace the existing Long Beach Red and Blade Silver hues: Red Mist Tintcoat, and Silver Flare. The latter could be a dead ringer for the silver paint on the No. 4 Corvette C8.R race car, the outlet says, and it wouldn’t be the first time the Corvette brought a race car paint hue to the consumer market.
The bigger news, however, is that the Magnetic Selective Ride Control magnetorheological dampers will no longer be exclusive to the Z51 package, and will instead be offered as an independent standalone option.
In addition, wireless Apple CarPlay will be made standard on all 2021 Chevrolet Corvettes, according to Corvette Blogger, and some new racing-themed aesthetic touches will become available, including new full-length racing stripe and stinger stripe options, and WeatherTech all-weather floor mats with the Corvette Racing “Jake” logo.
Leaked documentation also points toward a “Stingray R” design theme, which could be a new C8.R-inspired exterior graphics package. That wouldn’t be unprecedented, as the previous-generation Corvette Z06 was offered with a limited “C7.R Edition” appearance package for a short time.
In all likelihood, Chevrolet didn’t have to change a thing about the new C8 Corvette going into the second model year, but we’re glad they did; the prospect of C8.R-inspired graphics and magneto dampers across all models is a tantalizing one.
Remember GM’s “Flying Car Mode?” It was a software program first introduced in the 2010 Chevy Corvette ZR1 help improve the car’s lap times on track. Now, it’s coming to the C8 Corvette.
Speaking with reporters at Chevy’s Spring Mountain Corvette school this week, performance manager Alex MacDonald confirmed thas Flying Car Mode is indeed a feature on the C8, included as part of Magnetic Ride Control 4.0.
The program was initially conceived during the ZR1’s development in the late 2000s. The car would catch air during points on a race track, and every time, the tires would spin up, causing traction control to kick in and bog the engine down—not great for momentum or acceleration. With Flying Car Mode, the car would use position sensors to identify when the wheels left the ground, and momentarily turn off traction control so it wouldn’t intervene, solving the issue.
This time around, the sensors have been replaced with accelerometers for more accuracy and speed. The system is so quick, that it can actually read what the front wheels are doing before that same piece of road reaches the rear wheels, and adjust the traction as necessary. For example, if the front wheels get lightly loaded all of a sudden, the computer can tell the traction system the same thing is about to happen to the rear wheels, and cut traction so it doesn’t intervene and bog down the car. Smart stuff.
Paul Sadlon Corvette
550 Bayfield Street Barrie Ontario L4M 5A2s Tel. No.: 705.726.1811


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Microsoft recently announced its latest earnings figures for the quarter ended June 30 2018, blowing away analyst predictions.
Revenues came in at US$30.09 billion with Azure Cloud alone growing 89 percent. It's clear that the tech giant is placing significant emphasis on the cloud industry, and AvePoint ANZ managing director Blair Hainsworth says so too are its customers.
AvePoint is a company that recently completed an overhaul of its systems with a digital transformation that consisted of an increased reliance (and spend on) of Microsoft's cloud technologies.
“Over the last five years the cloud industry has changed from the most disruptive technology and landscape we have ever seen, to possibly the most competitive IT marketplace we have ever seen,” says Hainsworth.
“With hyperscale providers such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google taking on historical titans such as IBM, the push for the best platform with the highest security at the most competitive price has never been stronger.
Hainsworth says the key to this market is product differentiation.
“Within this market of heavyweights one thing that has been exciting is how Microsoft has managed to stay unique,” says Hainsworth.
“While other providers can attempt to claim ascendancy on IaaS or PaaS technology (AWS will state this), only Microsoft with its balance of IaaS, PaaS, CRM, and Office 365/M365 services has created the complete cloud story for customers. It is this more complete story that is enabling them to grow at such a rate.
Hainsworth says now that we have all the cloud bases covered, the next process moving forward is to determine whether it would be best to go all-in to cloud, stay on-premises, or move to a hybrid approach. The answer, Hainsworth says, depends largely on the size of a business and its market sector.
“One great gift of the cloud has been the democratization of IT, with previously enterprise only technology becoming available to SMB at the same performance level as the top end of the town, yet with a price they can handle. An 8 person law firm can now get the same Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint and hosting from Microsoft as a 60,000 user multinational. I can see this leading small to medium business leveraging the cloud almost exclusively.
“For the top end however, it becomes more complex. Black box services like email or file sharing are likely to be almost fully cloud centric, it's the Line of Business (LOB) systems that still may remain hybrid or on premises. For those who are heavily regulated or have serious concerns about the security of their data the cloud might just be something that in some circumstances always remains a dream left in the sky."


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Need to do some real work? This small portfolio conceals a full QWERTY keyboard that pairs with most tablets and phones.
Navigate the ins-and-outs of Windows 8 with how-tos, troubleshooting, news, and reviews.
The most important things to know when shopping for a cell phone.
A 5.7-inch screen makes this Windows 8.1 phone a more economical bet for lovers of the large display.
We get our mitts on three new Lenovo tablets, all of which lean heavily on their low price tags. Hit play to take a look.
The "plays everything" media player is back on the Apple App Store, and this latest release adds new features such as better support for Ultra HD content.
Microsoft unveiled two budget smartphones at Mobile World Congress, but a flagship smartphone remains elusive.
The move is part of the company's evolution into a software business, which includes working with every major operating system.
From long-expected new products like the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 to surprises like the Huawei Watch and HTC Vive, here's everything you missed on the day before the Mobile World Congress officially opened.
It may not look like much, but at least Acer's newest fitness band is affordable -- and it works with a lot of phones.
Lenovo's 8-inch tablet is coming this summer and gives you Windows 8.1 for just $149.


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5G technology is being tested by many technology giants and Huawei is also among them. It is planning to launch it as soon as it could. But it appears that Huawei would not be able to proceed with the launch of the 5G technology in New Zealand as the nation’s international spy agency has placed a ban on Spark from using Huawei’s device in its 5G upgrade. Security concerns are the reason for not permitting the Huawei equipment to be used in the country.
Banning Huawei 5G is a wrong decision as it would not just slow down the overall 5G process, but it would also be affecting the economic trading of the country as well.
This is not the first time that a ban has been placed on Huawei, back in the month of August Australia had also barred the Huawei 5G activities owing to security concerns. The decision has come as an utter disappointment for Tough Spark however at the same time is definite that it is all set to introduce the 5G network by July 2020.
In the month of March, Huawei and Spark displayed a 5G test location for the publicity and the ceremony was attended by the Broadcasting Minister—Clare Curran.
As per some analyst, this ban would have economic effects for New Zealand as China is its biggest trading partner. Huawei said that even if they would not be included in the launch of 5G technology in New Zealand, the technology would be made in China. It also added that this decision to ban would not just slow the process upgrade but would also slow down the competition.
Earlier Conaway’s bill suggested a ban barring branches of the United States government from working with the service providers that incorporate the use of equipment bought from Huawei or ZTE owing to security concerns. A new bill also bars the US government from buying equipment from Huawei and ZTE.
I am a writer/editor at Research Snipers RS-NEWS and it’s been 3 years working with the company. My specialties are technology and business.


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Czech industrial firms could lose tens of billions of crowns over the short term due to sanctions between Russia and the EU, according to a survey by the country’s Confederation of Industry among their member companies. In the long run, the losses could amount to hundreds of billions, the group said. The machinery, energy, chemical and petrochemical sectors as well as agriculture technology and food industry are likely to suffer most due to the sanctions, according to the survey. The Czech government’s estimate of potential losses is much lower, of around 2.1 billion crowns but the industry group says Czech companies’ sales to partners in Western Europe could also be affected by the sanctions.
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A tailor made Prague beer institution
Analyst: Migrant quota row will leave the Czech Republic on the periphery outside the EU core
Major Czech operators end roaming surcharges as EU deadline draws near


text: The makers of Scenes of A Sexual Nature, out in November, are not just hoping it’s a hit in the box office ? they are also testing a new online distribution model which they say could help independent and low-budget films.Ed Blum, the film’s director, and Suran Goonatilake, the investor behind Blum’s production firm Tinpanfilms, hope the system will reduce distributors’ control and give private investors more of a say in how movies are marketed and where revenues end up.Dubbed ‘The Really Honest Little Distribution Company’, their firm will handle the distribution process, while a collection agency will be used to allocate the film’s takings. If it proves a success, they plan to offer their service to other smaller productions.Social networking agency Rareface has also been recruited to manage an online PR and marketing campaign using the likes of Myspace and YouTube, through which it plans to learn best practices and replicate similar campaigns for other movie releases.The film’s makers are nothing if not ambitious. It attracted an A-list cast including Ewan McGregor and took six weeks to complete, despite its budget totalling less than £500,000. We spoke to them about their plans.Source: www.e-consultancy.com Thanks to Roberta for the link!


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Legal & General (L&G) has made Jane Dale its new managing director of general insurance operations.
Ms Dale has worked at L&G for more than 16 years, most recently as managing director for the group risk operation, where for the past eight years the business has significantly grown in size from £60m to £200m.
She takes over the role from Ian Viney, who will be running L&G's five-year-old Commercial International Life Insurance Company joint venture in Egypt.
Kate Avery, group director retail di
- Losses bite at Ageas Retail after Kwik Fit closure
- David Charles steps down as head of PIB-owned Cooke & Mason
- New motor fleet MGA launched
- Lark boosts profit ahead of Aston Scott merger
- Ageas teams up with CDL on Flood Re solution
- Meet the Leeds Expo panellists: Simon Mabb
- Verisk to buy Sequel for £250m


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You are currently browsing the archives for the Bissell category.
By Kari Lydersen
Working In These Times
CHICAGO—Marketers for Bissell, the vacuum and cleaning products company, came to the International Home and Housewares Show at Chicago’s convention center last weekend to sell their latest products to Wal-Mart, Target, Kohl’s and other major retailers.
But while displaying their wares, company representatives got a clear message from workers fired last fall after filing discrimination and unfair labor practice charges. Fired workers were joined by about 100 supporters rallied by the UE union, which is advocating for the Bissell workers as part of its larger Warehouse Workers for Justice campaign.
As I previously covered on this blog, about 70 workers were fired in November from Bissell’s warehouse in suburban Will County—part of a massive distribution hub where 150,000 workers process retail goods coming from overseas for transport throughout the nation. Female Bissell workers were often paid $2.50 per hour less than men for the same jobs – which they say is especially ironic since women purchase the bulk of homecare products.
“It’s total discrimination,” said Cindy Marble. “I was fired simply in retaliation for standing up for myself.”
Through the UE and local clergy, the workers are demanding restitution and ideally rehiring with fair pay and improved working conditions. Most of the workers have been so far unable to find other jobs.
“Bissell, clean up your act!” chanted the crowd, led by Rev. Craig Purchase of Mt. Zion Tabernacle, on the sidewalk outside the convention center. Upon learning that Bissell representatives were watching from inside, the group spread out across the length of the lawn and pumped their fists or shook their fingers directly at the glass façade.
“These vacuum cleaners are made in sweatshops in China, and guess who has to move them, in sweatshop conditions right in Obama’s back yard,” said campaign organizer Abraham Mwaura. “These multinational companies moved overseas and what did they give us back? These minimum wage jobs.”
UE organizer Mark Meinster said a Bissell representative indicated Sunday that company officials want to talk with the workers. Meinster thinks the public pressure at the convention center made a significant impact, given that major customers like Wal-Mart and Kohl’s – also targets of the Warehouse Workers campaign – were among the 20,000-plus buyers at the show. Workers have also been leafleting at stores calling on customers to boycott Bissell products until the charges are addressed.
Past letters and calls from the union and clergy have elicited only a letter from Bissell saying the firings were carried out by a subcontractor, whose contract has ended. Most warehouse workers are hired through subcontractors – sometimes several layers of them – a common strategy in many industries wherein large companies avoid accountability for working conditions.
“Certainly we’re communicating that we’re open to straightening the situation out,” Meinster said. “It’s their warehouse. We think this is a powerful example of what warehouse workers are facing everyday across the industry. People were hearing for years that this would be so great for jobs in the area. This crystallizes the reasons it’s not.”
Group of 100 organizes a boycott to peacefully protest a company they say mistreated and fired local workers
January 19, 2010
By CINDY WOJDYLA CAIN
JOLIET — On a day set aside to honor civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., a group of warehouse workers, community leaders and local clergy gathered at Sacred Heart Church to launch a peaceful protest of their own: a boycott of Bissell products.
The boycott stems from the termination of 70 employees who joined a union last year and complained about working conditions at the Bissell Homecare Inc. warehouse in Elwood.
Former warehouse employees allege they were paid below minimum wage, women were paid less than men, a pregnant worker was assigned heavy lifting and employees who complained were threatened with retaliation.
“How can we celebrate the legacy of Dr. King without addressing the injustice that exists in our backyard,” asked the Rev. Craig Purchase, of Mount Zion Tabernacle Church, who is president of Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Joliet chapter.
Betty Washington, first vice president for the Joliet chapter of the NAACP, said she thinks King would have been pleased with Monday’s event, which drew about 100 people to the church at 337 S. Ottawa St.
“I believe Will County has become a place where warehouses come and use our citizens without paying them a living wage, and it adds to the poverty level here in Will County,” she said. “Yes they’re bringing jobs into the community, but for the most part people work 90 days and then they’re let go.”
Stacy Moskowitz, a Bissell spokeswoman, said the workers lost their jobs when Roadlink Workforce Solutions, a temp agency, decided to end its staffing contract with Maersk Distribution Services, the company hired by Bissell to manage the facility.
The termination of that pact, not worker complaints, appears to be “the root of the dispute,” she said.
“We have no information that Maersk has done anything wrong in the way that it has operated the facility,” Moskowitz said in a press release.
Both Maersk and Roadlink also have issued statements in the past denying any worker mistreatment at the warehouse that opened a year ago at Route 53 and Ira Morgan Road.
The Rev. Herbert Brooks Jr., who serves on the Will County Board, said he was happy with the “fantastic” turnout at Monday’s event.
“The 100 people told us, ‘We’re not going to take it anymore.’ And that’s what I loved best about it,” he said.
The Rev. Raymond Lescher, pastor at Sacred Heart, said the hearing was just the first step.
“We have to keep the pressure on and we have to stay focused.”
Leaders from Chicago-based Warehouse Workers for Justice, who helped organize the Joliet event, say they hope the boycott spreads from church to church and town to town. They distributed a list of Bissell products — including vacuum cleaners, mops, brooms, brushes, cleaning formulas and sweepers — that they urged the group to boycott.
Michael Meinster, a Warehouse Workers for Justice board member, said Bissell — not Maersk — is the target of the boycott because the company has the ultimate power to fix conditions at the warehouse and rehire the workers.
“They hold the strings,” he said. “Maersk works for them.”
Scott Marshall, a mass communications professor at University of St. Francis, said he plans to go into area stores to tell managers that he is boycotting Bissell products to drive the point home.
“It’s un-American to treat workers that way,” he said of the alleged abuses.
Orland Rivera, of Wilmington, said his salary at the Bissell warehouse was cut from $12 to $10.50 with no warning. Rivera, 50, said he was laid off three times from warehouse jobs in 2008 and three more times in 2009. He remains unemployed after being fired from the Bissell job with 69 co-workers Nov. 6. He’s looked for other warehouse jobs, but they’re all staffed by temp agencies, he said.
After the Bissell workers were terminated, Warehouse Workers for Justice filed complaints against Maersk and Roadlink with the Illinois and U.S. labor departments and the National Labor Relations Board. In December, the group filed a class action lawsuit against the temp agency that staffs the Walmart warehouse in Joliet for allegedly not paying employees for all the hours they worked and for overtime. All of the cases are pending.
Celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. at Joliet’s Mt. Zion Baptist Church
January 18, 2010
By JOE HOSEY, The Joliet Herald-News
JOLIET–Martin Luther King Jr. was killed when he went to Memphis, to support striking sanitation workers. At the ecumenical celebration of King’s birth on Sunday, pastors and activists called attention to a present day labor struggle.
“We can’t really celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King if there are injustices occurring less than five miles away from us,” said Abraham Mwaura, a representative of Warehouse Workers for Justice.
Mwaura spoke during the celebration held at Mt. Zion Baptist Church and told of the conditions warehouse workers are subjected, including those right here in Joliet.
Mwaura imparted the story of a pregnant worker whose job in a frozen pizza warehouse had her bending over a conveyor belt for the duration of her shift. Her doctor told her she had to make an adjustment for the sake of her unborn baby, Mwaura said, but management “refused to move her, refused to give her a stool, refused to do anything to make her work lighter.”
Management stood fast even in the face of an organized protest by the workers, he said, and the woman ultimately lost her baby.
“What is that frozen pizza worth to us now?” Mwaura asked. “What is that economic development worth to us now?”
He also introduced a former warehouse worker identified only as Cindy, who was fired from the Bissell facility in Elwood after she and 69 of her co-workers protested such practices as mistreating the pregnant and paying below the minimum wage.
The Warehouse Workers for Justice are meeting at Sacred Heart Church on Ottawa Street today and will call for a boycott of Bissell products, Mwaura said.
The Rev. Isaac Singleton also addressed the crowd in Mt. Zion Baptist Church and spoke of the progress made by the black community, and of the struggle ahead.
“I remember when we couldn’t go downtown and buy nothing,” Singleton said. He also recalled “sitting on the back of the bus in Joliet.”
“I think about how far God brought us,” Singleton said, later adding,” We are really not that much better off than we were years ago.
“We’re not where we ought to be, and we’re not where we should be,” the reverend said. “But you have come along way.”
Most importantly, Singleton said, men and women of all races need to “stick together as people.”
“As people of the United States of America,” he said, “and more specifically, Joliet, Illinois, because we can make a difference.”
IWW activists in Grand Rapids, MI let Kohl’s customers know that Bissell products are distributed with sweatshop labor. Grand Rapids is home to the headquarters of Bissell Homecare.


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One of the biggest challenges facing the AI community today is developing accurate enough models that can provide real value for a product or business. Comet, an Israeli startup providing MLOps solutions, secured $13 million in Series A funding from a number of investors, including Amazon Alexa Fund.
Just like the App Store
Comet develops an MLOps platform for managing models and AI/ML experiments. The platform helps customers and users manage the entire model development life cycle - starting from tracking fed data, code, experiments, results, and the quality of models once deployed in the production space.
While chatting with Geektime, co-founder and CEO Gideon Mendels told us that what makes the product unique was that the platform is flexible, allowing customers to adapt it to their needs with two lines of code: “Essentially, Comet shares functional similarities to the App Store. These are called Code Panels, which give third-party developers or enterprise development teams freedom to add different functions, change the product, and seamlessly implement the platform into the organizational network.”
Comet was founded in 2017 by Gideon Mendels and Nimrod Lahav. Mendels previously led Google’s AI models focused on identifying hate speech on YouTube; Lahav previously led the R&D team at Wix. Among the company’s customers we find major market leaders like Etsy, Uber, Zappos, Boeing, Ancestry, along with other Fortune 500 companies. Comet’s headquarters are based in NYC, but recently opened an Israel-based R&D center, with further plans to expand down the road.
The Series A round was led by Scale Venture Partners, which had previously backed other Israeli Unicorns such as Forter, Papaya Global, JFrog, and BigID. Comet’s existing investors Trilogy Equity Partners and Two Sigma Ventures also got in on the action. Additionally, joining the party was Alexa, well the $200 million Amazon Alexa Fund to be exact, which invests in AI and voice recognition ventures.
In addition to the funding, Comet announced the acquisition of Stakion, a model production monitoring company based in the U.K. The acquisition supports Comet’s newest product innovation, Comet Model Production Monitoring, which will enable organizations to track and monitor the quality of models after they have been deployed in production.


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We present to your attention the next issue of the news program news from Apple. Today we will talk about the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 11.3 and much more.
1. The new Apple tablet, which was presented at the presentation on March 27, it is unsuitable for repair. The verdict handed down by the famous specialists of the resource iFixit, which dismantled the tablet and gave it only 2 points out of a possible 10.
2. Apple took third place in the smartphone market of Russia in the first quarter of 2018. In the first place continues to be Samsung with a market share of 25 %, calculated in the “Connected”. Second place was given to Huawei and Honor with a share of 17 %, Apple also got 15 %.
3. Web Protocol WebAuthn allow the use of biometric identification sensors like Touch ID and Face ID to confirm identity on the websites instead of the alphanumeric password. The latest development has already passed the necessary tests and can be implemented by developers of web browsers without any delay.
4. Apple has extended the warranty on the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X in Russia. In addition, with the current models, the company added several that are sold in the United States, Australia, China, Hong Kong and other countries. Now, under guarantee of the Russian Federation fall models A1863 (iPhone 8), A1864 (iPhone 8 Plus) and A1865 (iPhone X).
5. APR 10, in Russia started sales of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus in the red building. It follows from the branded online store of Apple. The price of a smartphone, whose release took place in the framework of the program to raise funds for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, start from 56 990 rubles.
Housing both new products are made of the same materials as the enclosure models the standard series, differing from them only in the colors of aluminum frame and back wall. Smartphones available for purchase on the official website of the company in two configurations with a memory capacity of 64 and 256 GB versions with a screen diagonal of 4.7 and 5.5 inches.
The delivery time of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus red case be 3-5 working days depending on the removal of the region of your residence. Despite the fact that courier service, which cooperates with Apple, delivers the goods from a branded online store even ahead of time, do not delay, because there may not be enough.
6. Update to iOS 11.3 will damage the screen of iPhone 8 is released by third party manufacturers. It is reported by the Motherboard with reference to the representatives of the network of service centers Injured Gadgets. The system detects unauthorized counterfeit components capable of causing device damage, and blocks them.
According to the Director General Injured Gadgets of Aakshay Kripalani, to date, there were approximately 2,000 complaints about the lack of responsiveness of a touchscreen. “Customers are annoyed and it seems that Apple is doing this to force them to continue not to contact repair shops that use unauthorized parts,” he says.
However, it is not necessary to believe that Apple can block thousands of iPhone 8 on purpose. The design of the new Apple smartphones provides a special microchip controlling the operation of the display. Replace the last without updating the chip, experts believe, leads to a crash, preventing further operation of the device.


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A "veritable basket of fruits." That was the advance word Wednesday on this year's Beaujolais Nouveau wine which was officially released at 12:01 a.m. today. The sale of the red wine, made from grapes harvested in October and aged only a month, has become an international event with airplanes whizzing cargoes around the world. "It is a bit pretentious but the quality is above average," said Andre Rebut, vice president of the Interprofessional Union of Beaujolais Wines. "It has a beautiful brilliance, a very flattering smell of little red fruits and is very much an early fruit type of wine," said expert Maryse Allarousse. The price will be about the same as last year, $3 a bottle. Nine and a half million gallons were bottled.
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
Copyright © 2019, Orlando Sentinel


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Apple has yet to announce it’s fifth-generation smartphone, but that apparently won’t stop German carrier Deutsche Telekom from selling it. Bloomberg reported on Monday morning that it has confirmed with Deutsche Telekom that, beginning today, DT subscribers may begin reserving Apple’s next-generation iPhone 5 smartphone. The carrier will hand out coupons to customers who reserve the device, despite the fact that no confirmed details surrounding the next iPhone are available. Not even the name of the device is confirmed at this point. Apple is expected to launch a fifth-generation iPhone and an updated fourth-generation model some time next month. Invitations to a special media event at which Apple will unveil the new phones are expected as early as this week. More →
Last night, Apple released an update to their Apple Store iPhone app. While there wasn’t anything new in the way of features, it did contain something notable… the ability to reserve a white iPhone 4. Navigating to the store of your choosing, selecting the “Reservations” tab, followed by “Reserve Product” will actually allow you to select the white iPhone 4 in either 16GB or 32GB configurations. The device is — obviously — still not available in Apple’s online store. Could this be a sign that the albino iDevice is going to be making its way into the wild? Looks like it. More →
One of our trusty Apple sources wrote us in to give us a breakdown on day one of Apple iPhone reservations. The information we have is from Apple stores only, this doesn’t include AT&T stores or Apple’s website, Best Buy or Radio Shack. We have also independently confirmed the information below.
- A “large” New York Apple store had over 2,200 iPhone reservations
- A “medium” sized Boston Apple store had over 800 reservations
- One store in California had over 1,000 reservations, and another in California had over 1,400
- A “small” Texas Apple store had over 900.
Note that these don’t include preorders, walk-in sales on launch day, or any white iPhones. So, it’s in addition to Apple’s 600,000 number. Can’t you tell how excited Apple is?
One of our Apple connects recently hit us up and broke down some important iPad figures. According to him, Apple stores received around 300-350 (on average) reservations for store pick-ups on day one, and now sit at around 700 reservations so far (72 hours in). This doesn’t count people who pre-ordered the device online, just those that wish to physically go into an Apple store and pick up their reserved unit on launch day.
The figures that we’ve seen floating around of about 150,000 pre-orders, we’re told, are extremely accurate thus far but obviously don’t include people’s store reservations. We have also been told Apple’s flagship 5th Avenue store in New York now holds around 1600 reservations for iPads, with 800 in the first day, and about 400 a day since.
Lastly, store reservations seem to be split around 50% for the 32GB unit, 30% for the 64GB unit and about 20% for the 16GB, which is what, “Apple was expecting.”